I don’t think I’ve ever run a race that didn’t benefit SOMETHING – this charity, that research cause, or to help with the medical bills of a poor soul.

You’d think that, since the money’s going to a good cause, you can write the race fee off your taxes as a charitable donation, right?

Wrong, says Kelly Phillips Erb. She’s a Philly runner, tax attorney, and writes about taxes at taxgirl.com, a tax blog that is actually interesting. (Yes, really)

“General rule of thumb is when you get something it’s not deduction,” says Phillips Erb.

Most of the time, only part of your money is going to the charity. The rest pays to put on the race, for your timing chip, your free t-shirt.

If you ask the organization how MUCH of your donation is going to charity, you could write off that percentage. Or, if you add more money onto your check, like Phillips Erb does for the Komen Race for the Cure, which she runs every year, you can deduct that. She wasn’t sure about race fees for something like the Run the Bridge 10K. We wrote our checks directly to the Larc School, not to the company putting on the race, so she suggested I call the organizers and ask.

If you run for money, any race fee is deductible as a cost of business. Though from what I understand, most of the people who are in any standing to win cash don’t pay the race fee in the first place. The idea of running for money is beyond me and how fast my legs can carry me, so we’ll leave that at that.

A caveat to this entire post: I’m not a CPA. If you’re going to relate any part of your race fees to your taxes, make sure you ask someone who knows the law, not a writer who was hoping to knock a few hundred bucks off her taxes this year.